Robotic ‘Ghost in the Shell’ lacks heart

The “ghost” here is soul, consciousness, humanity, heart; “shell,” that spirit’s physical shelter. The protagonist in this live-action adaptation of the popular Japanese manga that produced the groundbreaking 1995 anime film is more machine than human, more shell than ghost, and that proves an apt metaphor for the film itself.

“Ghost in the Shell” sidesteps questions of humanity and the effect of technology on the human spirit and opts instead for boilerplate sci-fi spectacle, eschewing existentialism for predictable plot and the glittery trappings of its 21st-century carapace.

Scarlett Johansson stars as Major, a living feat of technological ingenuity. She’s a human brain in a cybernetic frame, a cerebral salvage job from an accident she can’t remember (and her former life, with it). She’s the first of her kind, designed by caring Dr. Ouelet (a soulful Juliette Binoche, who provides the movie’s only heart) for Hanka Robotics. While Dr. Ouelet sees Major as human — her child, after giving her new life — her boss Cutter (Peter Ferdinando) sees her as money.

With an eminently fixable body finetuned for detective work and hand-to-hand combat, Major isn’t a woman, she’s a weapon. Employed by intelligence department Section 9, she and her charismatic, softhearted partner Batou (Pilou Asbaek) fight cyber terrorism in a sprawling, futuristic metropolis. There, a mysterious robed hacker named Kuze (Michael Pitt) has been wreaking havoc on Hanka, targeting (and eliminating) everyone who worked on top-secret project 2571.

In trying to track down Kuze, Major gets hacked and becomes compromised. That’s when she starts experiencing glitches, lifelike images and sounds — a cat, a burning building, a screaming girl — that provoke an emotional response. Are they just glitches, or could they be something more? Could they even be something Major has never experienced: memories?

Major’s questions about her lost past propel a plot that’s more about recovering identity than grappling with the meaning of it. There are no big existential questions here; just an overly familiar plot where big bad corporations and greedy men do nefarious things in the shadows, and the desire for vengeance serves as motivator.

Whatever pleasures “Ghost in the Shell” has to offer are visual, and they are many; all ingenuity went into the creation